''Crush'' is a 2007
puzzle-platform game
A platform game (often simplified as platformer and sometimes called a jump 'n' run game) is a sub-genre of action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are charac ...
developed by
Kuju Entertainment
Kuju Entertainment Ltd. is a British video game developer. The original company was Simis, formed in 1989 and purchased by Eidos Interactive in 1995. Kuju was formed in 1998 in Shalford, Surrey, England, after a management buyout of Simis from Ei ...
's Zoë Mode studio and published by
Sega
is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...
for the
PlayStation Portable
The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 2005, ...
. Its protagonist is Danny, a young man suffering from
insomnia
Insomnia, also known as sleeplessness, is a sleep disorder in which people have trouble sleeping. They may have difficulty falling asleep, or staying asleep as long as desired. Insomnia is typically followed by daytime sleepiness, low energy, ...
, who uses an experimental device to explore his mind and discover the cause of his sleeplessness. Each level of the game, representing events from Danny's life and inspired by artists such as
Tim Burton
Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and animator. He is known for his gothic fantasy and horror films such as ''Beetlejuice'' (1988), ''Edward Scissorhands'' (1990), ''The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (1993), ...
and
M.C. Escher
Maurits Cornelis Escher (; 17 June 1898 – 27 March 1972) was a Dutch graphic artist who made Mathematics and art, mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithography, lithographs, and mezzotints.
Despite wide popular interest, Escher was for ...
, requires the player to control Danny as he collects his "lost marbles" and other thoughts.
''Crush''s primary gameplay feature involves manipulating each game level between
3D and
2D views, allowing the player to reach platforms and locations inaccessible from within a different view. This element was noted by critics to be similar to one in ''
Super Paper Mario
is a 2007 action role-playing game (RPG) developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Wii. It is the third installment in the ''Paper Mario'' series and the first Mario (franchise), Mario game to be released on the Wii. T ...
'', also released in 2007, though the Zoë Mode team had envisioned the concept five years prior. ''Crush'' received positive reviews upon release, with critics praising its incorporation of this dimension-shifting component alongside other aspects of the game presentation. Though ''Crush'' won several gaming awards, including PSP game of the month, it failed to meet the developer's sales expectations. A port of the game for the
Nintendo 3DS
The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo. It was announced in March 2010 and unveiled at E3 2010 as the successor to the Nintendo DS. The system features backward compatibility with Nintendo DS video games. As an eighth-generatio ...
called ''CRUSH3D'' was announced in January 2011 and was made available in January 2012 in Europe; in February 2012 in Australia; and in March 2012 in North America.
Plot
While ''Crush'' and its
Nintendo 3DS
The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo. It was announced in March 2010 and unveiled at E3 2010 as the successor to the Nintendo DS. The system features backward compatibility with Nintendo DS video games. As an eighth-generatio ...
port ''CRUSH3D'' retain the same gameplay mechanics and premise, the two versions feature different plots.
PSP version
The protagonist of the game, a young man named Danny, suffers from chronic
insomnia
Insomnia, also known as sleeplessness, is a sleep disorder in which people have trouble sleeping. They may have difficulty falling asleep, or staying asleep as long as desired. Insomnia is typically followed by daytime sleepiness, low energy, ...
caused by worry, stress, and repressed memories. He is admitted to a mental institution for it, where he consults a mad scientist, Dr. Reubens, who treats Danny with his Cognitive Regression Utilizing pSychiatric Heuristics (C.R.U.S.H.) device, which has a sentient female persona.
The device's helmet places Danny under hypnosis, during which he can regain control of his sanity by collecting his
lost marbles, and facing his primal fears in the form of monsters (i.e. cockroaches, blockwalkers, slugs). Danny starts recounting key moments in his life that may have contributed to his insomnia: Moving into his first apartment and his suffering job as a chef in the city, his love life some few years ago at the beach with a girl named Tina (which unfortunately ended in him being jilted), and the time he went to a local
funfair
A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks.
Types
Variations of fairs incl ...
alone as a young boy, where he ended up assaulted by a group of thugs. When Danny returns to the lab a fourth time after none of these prove to be the case, Dr. Reubens snaps at Danny for wearing out his machine further, and regresses Danny all the way to his childhood, when he was only six years old, against Danny's own will. In the end, Danny reveals that he was left home alone during his parents' date night, with disturbing shadows of the night leaving Danny traumatized. Danny discovers that his childhood fears at that time, principally his
nyctophobia
Fear of the dark is a common fear or phobia among children and, to a varying degree, adults. A fear of the dark does not always concern darkness itself; it can also be a fear of possible or imagined dangers concealed by darkness. Some degree ...
, are the real cause of his insomnia. Reubens is disgusted that his treatment was a complete waste and that Danny ruined his machine due to such a petty issue, but tells him he's cured. Right when Reubens begins to snap Danny out of hypnosis, C.R.U.S.H. seems to attack Danny's mind, with Reubens panicking and Danny's life on the line while the screen fades to black.
3DS version
Doctor 'Doc' Doccerson (instead of Reubens in the PSP version), is infuriated that all of his inventions failed, but today he 'shall surpass them all' with his latest invention, C.R.U.S.H. He uses a tape recorder for his scientific narrative on the experiment. With the help of his best friend and protégé, Danny (who recurrently corrects Doc throughout the game), he enters his mind as his subject to C.R.U.S.H., but after a few tests, Danny is trapped inside C.R.U.S.H., where he can collect his lost marbles (which will unlock new dressing gowns/robe designs) and facing his fears in the form of monsters (i.e. cockroaches, slugs). At one point, Doc tells Danny that C.R.U.S.H. will not let Danny out due to "unresolved feelings." The two question that reasoning as they progress. Towards the end, C.R.U.S.H. interrupts contact between Danny and Doc, overly infatuated with Danny. Danny slowly admits to C.R.U.S.H. that she is simply a machine and compares it to "flirting with a parking meter." C.R.U.S.H., infuriated, sends Danny back to his childhood as a result. When Doc comes back into contact with Danny, Danny lashes out at Doc for building a machine "with the heart of a teenage girl" who "LOLd" at him. Doc, calming Danny down, explains how this "subconscious" is not really his, but old data, and suddenly Danny becomes shocked when he realizes he took the place of someone who underwent treatment with C.R.U.S.H. (being the PSP Danny), but "she knows
e's
is a Japanese shōnen manga series written and drawn by Satoru Yuiga. It was originally serialized in ''Monthly GFantasy'' from 1997 through 2005, and later published in 16 ''tankōbon'' volumes by Square Enix from March 18, 2003 to Februa ...
not the same." C.R.U.S.H. really wanted Danny to clear her head. In the ending, Danny finally escapes and is free out of C.R.U.S.H's mind. He and Doc discuss C.R.U.S.H's future, while Doc says that he'll fix her. In a sudden plot twist, it turns out that they were not in the real world at all, but all the levels throughout the game are outside Doc's lab. C.R.U.S.H. smiles and laughs into the camera, she winks and the screen cuts to black.
Gameplay
''Crush'' contains ten levels in each of the four locations, all based on an event in Danny's past.
The levels represent Danny's mind: a dark city landscape with many tall buildings and the occasional street lamp, a hotel resting aside a seaside location, a dark and mysterious funfair, and a haunted childhood bedroom. Levels are mostly composed of platforms formed by blocks. The player's goal in each level is to collect marbles, which give the player points based on their color. The exit from the level is opened once a predetermined number of points have been collected. Danny can crawl into narrow areas and jump a small height.
The main gameplay feature of ''Crush'' is the ability to transpose the layout of a level between 2D and 3D representations to reach seemingly inaccessible areas and solve the game's puzzles. The player can switch the
third-person camera between four directional side views and a top-down view at any time while in 3D. When in these views, the player can have Danny "crush" the level, collapsing all 3D elements into 2D; crushing from side views results in a 2D
platformer
A platform game (often simplified as platformer and sometimes called a jump 'n' run game) is a sub-genre of action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are charac ...
-like view, while crushing from the top-down view provides a 2D
top-down perspective
A variety of computer graphic techniques have been used to display video game content throughout the history of video games. The predominance of individual techniques have evolved over time, primarily due to hardware advances and restrictions ...
. Crushing can connect and merge platforms on the same visual plane in the 3D view but separated by a large distance, creating pathways across the level in the 2D view. The player can also "uncrush" the level at any time. Certain blocks, when crushed, become either obstacles through which Danny cannot pass, or ledges the player can use to reach other parts of the level. Attempts to crush a level in any manner that would harm Danny are thwarted. However, uncrushing can leave Danny in a helpless state, such as hanging in mid-air.
Enemy monsters inhabit the levels, but the player can crush them by flattening impassable blocks against them. The player may also encounter timers in the form of alarm clocks that will begin to elapse when crushed for the first time and can only be stopped when Danny jumps on them. Danny wakes from his mental explorations if he falls off the level or too high of a surface, is touched by a monster, or fails to stop a timer, but the C.R.U.S.H. device reinserts him at the start of the level or the last checkpoint Danny passed.
Throughout the levels are scattered large spheres and cylinders, which the player can roll when crushed appropriately. These can then be used as platforms or to depress switches.
Jigsaw pieces can be collected to reveal concept art and extras in the game's menus. Some of Danny's "thoughts", represented by glowing neon icons on the walls of the level, are only activated when the level is crushed in a manner that does not obscure them.
Some thoughts allow Danny to jump higher or stop time. Once the player completes each level, they are graded by the duration of Danny's stay on the level, how many times Danny "woke up", and a bonus for collecting all marbles, the jigsaw piece, and a hidden thought trophy.
The thought trophy, once completed by crushing, unlocks a level's special challenge mode for later play which requires time-limited completion of the level with an allotted number of crushes.
Development
In an interview, Zoë Mode executive producer Paul Mottram claimed that the game concept was envisioned in 2002, but work did not actually begin until 2006. The initial concept was built on the crushing mechanism between 2D and 3D, and they only had to create appropriate obstacles to prevent players from simply "crushing" across the level.
Mottram noted that during the development of ''Crush'', the gameplay of ''
Super Paper Mario
is a 2007 action role-playing game (RPG) developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Wii. It is the third installment in the ''Paper Mario'' series and the first Mario (franchise), Mario game to be released on the Wii. T ...
'' had not yet been revealed, and thus the team was surprised to learn that it shared a similar feature.
Mottram stated that the crushing mechanism had been developed and refined for six months before developing the story and characters; the development team wanted to have "a normal person in an impossible situation".
The art and level design were inspired by
Tim Burton
Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and animator. He is known for his gothic fantasy and horror films such as ''Beetlejuice'' (1988), ''Edward Scissorhands'' (1990), ''The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (1993), ...
,
Mike Mignola
Mike Mignola (; born September 16, 1960) is an American comics artist and writer best known for creating ''Hellboy'' for Dark Horse Comics, part of a shared universe of titles including ''B.P.R.D.'', '' Abe Sapien'', '' Lobster Johnson'', '' Wit ...
, and
M.C. Escher
Maurits Cornelis Escher (; 17 June 1898 – 27 March 1972) was a Dutch graphic artist who made Mathematics and art, mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithography, lithographs, and mezzotints.
Despite wide popular interest, Escher was for ...
. The plot was originally more morbid than in the final product, with Danny dying and the rest of the game told as
flashbacks.
The game levels were developed on a
level editor
In Video game, video games, a level (also referred to as a map, stage, or round in some older games) is any space available to the player during the course of completion of an objective. Video game levels generally have progressively-increasing ...
on the PlayStation Portable, but Zoë Mode were not able to refine the editor in time for shipping. Mottram said "It would be great to see user generated content and this is something we have been seriously thinking about for the future" and that downloadable content "would work perfectly with the ''Crush'' level structure and I am sure that fans of the game would be eager to see more levels."
Mottram has stated they would like to market a sequel based on the highly positive feedback they had received;
however, with other Zoë Mode projects such as ''
SingStar'' and ''Play'' taking precedence, he does not know when this could be.
Reception
''Crush'' received "favorable" reviews, while ''CRUSH3D'' received "average" reviews, according to the
review aggregation
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
.
The PSP version was highly praised for its innovative approach to gameplay. Ryan Davis of
GameSpot
''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
appreciated ''Crush'' for owing "very little of its novel concept to games that preceded it".
Nick Suttner of ''
1UP'' called the game a "cognitively rewarding, expertly designed puzzle experience that truly plays like nothing else".
Reviews were mixed on the game's
learning curve
A learning curve is a graphical representation of the relationship between how Skill, proficient people are at a task and the amount of experience they have. Proficiency (measured on the vertical axis) usually increases with increased experience ...
.
IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
's Jeremy Dunham praised the ordering of the puzzle elements, that new gaming elements are introduced at "an ideal pace", and that most puzzles have solutions where the player must "think 'outside the box'".
''
Eurogamer
''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 and owned by alongside formed company Gamer Network. Its editor-in-chief is Martin Robinson.
Since 2008, it is known for the formerly eponymous games trade fair EGX ...
''s Dan Whitehead commented that the game introduces these elements too quickly and "doesn't give you much time to put the basics into practice".
Some critics found that elements of the game detracted from the game's uniqueness. ''
X-Play
''Xplay'' (previously ''GameSpot TV'' and ''Extended Play'') is a TV program about video games. The program, known for its reviews and comedy skits, airs on '' G4'' in the United States and had aired on ''G4 Canada'' in Canada (and briefly on YT ...
''s Greg Orlando, while stating that this was "one of the most novel games ever made", noted that it was "simply not very fun", as it lacked many player incentives beyond manipulating the world and collecting objects on each level. Reviewers noted that some puzzles were awkward due to the selection of the PlayStation Portable's controls.
Reviewers found the game's story poor, but this was overcome by the gameplay elements; Charles Herold of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' said "the minimal story is as forgettable as its puzzles are ingenious." Gus Mastrapa of ''
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'' said that the game "satisfies the innate gamer need to express the world in easy-to-manipulate numbers and objects."
GamesRadar+
''GamesRadar+'' (formerly ''GamesRadar'') is an entertainment website for video game-related news, previews, and reviews. It is owned by Future plc. In late 2014, Future Publishing-owned sites ''Total Film'', '' SFX'', ''Edge'' and '' Computer ...
included ''Crush'' in their list of the 100 most overlooked games of its generation. Editor Jason Fanelli stated that the ability to switch from 2D to 3D was "one of the most unique (at the time) features we’ve ever seen."
''The Digital Fix''s Ryan Poxon gave ''CRUSH3D'' a score of seven out of ten and called it a "puzzle game that genuinely surprised me at how brain teasing the game actually is." 411Mania's Adam Larck gave it a score of 6.6 out of 10 and said, "For a puzzle game, ''Crush 3D'' is a good choice for 3DS fans. While the mechanic may not be as creative as it was a few years ago, it’s still a decent game to check out. If you never saw the PSP version or haven’t played games like Fez or Echochrome, I’d recommend checking this out to see what crushing is all about." However, ''
Digital Spy
Digital Spy (DS) is a British-based entertainment, television and film website and brand and is the largest digital property at Hearst UK. Since its launch in 1999, Digital Spy has focused on entertainment news related to television programmes, ...
''s Liam Neeson gave it three stars out of five and stated: "Despite the five-year gap between releases, ''Crush 3D'' takes a few steps backwards in terms of visual style and presentation. Other than a rather limited and lacklustre selection of new levels and StreetPass features, it also offers very little in the way of brand new bonus content, making it difficult to recommend to anybody familiar with its PSP counterpart. Despite its shortcomings, however, ''Crush 3D'' gets it right where it counts."
In Japan, where ''CRUSH3D'' was ported for release under the name ) ''
Famitsu
formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the fo ...
'' gave it a score of three sevens and one six for a total of 27 out of 40.
IGN awarded ''Crush'' PSP Game of the Month for May 2007.
GameSpy
GameSpy was an American provider of online multiplayer and matchmaking middleware for video games founded in 1996 by Mark Surfas. After the release of a multiplayer server browser for the game, QSpy, Surfas licensed the software under the GameS ...
called ''Crush'' the third best PlayStation Portable game and the "PSP Puzzle Game of the Year" for its Game of the Year 2007 awards. Similarly, IGN awarded Crush the "Best PSP Puzzle Game", "Most Innovative PSP Game", and "Best PSP Game No One Played" awards in their Game of the Year 2007 selections. ''Crush'' won the 2007 Develop Conference Industry Award for "Best New Handheld IP". According to Paul Mottram, positive reception of the game did not translate into high sales, but the game "will hopefully stick around for a while and continue to shift units".
GameTrailers
''GameTrailers'' (''GT'') was an American video gaming website created by Geoffrey R. Grotz and Brandon Jones in 2002. The website specialized in multimedia content, including trailers and gameplay footage of upcoming and recently released v ...
made ''Crush'' a nominee for "Best PSP Game" in its Game of the Year Awards 2007.
See also
* ''
Echochrome
, is a 2008 puzzle game created by Sony's Japan Studio and Game Yarouze for PlayStation 3 from the PlayStation Store and for PlayStation Portable (PSP). The gameplay involves a mannequin figure traversing a rotatable world where physics and real ...
''
* ''
Fez
Fez most often refers to:
* Fez (hat), a type of felt hat commonly worn in the Ottoman Empire
* Fez, Morocco (or Fes), the second largest city of Morocco
Fez or FEZ may also refer to:
Media
* ''Fez'' (Frank Stella), a 1964 painting by the moder ...
''
* ''
Super Paper Mario
is a 2007 action role-playing game (RPG) developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Wii. It is the third installment in the ''Paper Mario'' series and the first Mario (franchise), Mario game to be released on the Wii. T ...
''
References
External links
Zoë Mode website*
{{featured article
2007 video games
Nintendo 3DS games
Perspective video games
Platform games
PlayStation Portable games
Puzzle video games
Sega video games
Single-player video games
Video games about mental health
Video games developed in the United Kingdom
Video games inspired by M. C. Escher
Zoë Mode games